Topic: Game critic pet peave of mine

[PyroMenace]

When somebody says something like, "I dont know what it was, but this made me feel this way..." Because to me that statement pretty much from a review standpoint to someone that gets paid to do that equals FAIL. Even on a podcast it gets under my skin when people are talking about games and such, like on the Gamers with jobs podcast when Sean was explaining why he wasnt all that thrilled about Fallout 3 after finishing it. "I dont know what it was, but Fallout 3 left me feeling cold." Then went on to say that its always playing it safe and its "for the masses". Fortunately the others kind of railed him for it.

[Quemaqua]

I suppose now and again maybe you can't put your finger on something, but if you spend some quiet time in thought about the games you play before dissecting them, most of the time you should be able to qualify why something did or didn't do it for you.  And sometimes, perhaps, people might use it as a way of pissing a little on a game that might not be up their alley despite being competent and well put together.

Glad Sean got railed for that comment, though.  Fallout 3 by absolutely no means played it safe, and while it can have the same mainstream appeal that any post-apocalyptic movie can have (i.e. everybody gets the concept and is intrigued by it), and is probably a bit more friendly to the average gamer than the original titles, I wouldn't say that it really went out of its way to go for mainstream appeal.  Granted, even after 90 hours I still haven't seen the ending, which I guess could change things, but the rest of the game is certainly better and more original than that.

[Pugnate]

I definitely agree with you Pyro when it comes to reviewers by profession. If you can't put your finger on it, then shut the fuck up. I am not talking about anyone here, or even the hobbyists at gamers with jobs, or people on message boards... but professional paid reviewers should be able to articulate their reasoning before going on record with their analysis.

I think paid reviewers are cut too much slack for their work.

I agree with Que in that you often don't understand why you feel a certain way about something, until you give the matter some thought... or let others analyze it on some message board... but when you are reviewing a game, you should be able to back your analysis... and shouldn't be to hide behind "I don't know why..."